Come this spring semester, the School of Modern Languages will offer classes in the Korean language.
“I am looking forward to start teaching at SBCC. I love teaching to students my language,” said SunAe Lee, the new Korean teacher.
Originally from Korea, Lee moved to the United States 15 years ago to attend graduate school. While here she realized she wanted to teach Korean, and currently teaches two Korean classes at UCSB. She will continue to teach these classes while also teaching at City College.
Being a native speaker and teaching one’s own language is completely different, said Lee. She added that just because you speak a language doesn’t mean you know how to teach it.
“I wanted to teach Korean at City College because is a great campus,” said Lee.
The School of Modern Languages chose Korean as the next language to be offered because Chinese and Japanese have already been taught for many years, and its addition completes the inclusion of the Pacific Rim’s major languages.
“The idea was brought up in one of the department meetings. We are always looking for ways to attract more students and we felt that Korean was a natural choice, especially in light of our Global Studies major,” said Dr. Sonia Zúñiga-Lomelí, the Chair of the School of Modern Languages.
Zúñiga-Lomelí also said she hopes Korean will become a popular language like the other 10 languages the School of Modern Languages offers.
“I am confident that many students will register for Korean,” said Zúñiga-Lomelí.
Lee added that she hopes to have 20 to 30 students in her class, but it is difficult to predict a number before.
“I am very excited that SBCC finally offers the Korean language. It is a big opportunity for me in my life right now,” said Lee, who also mentioned that many people are unaware Santa Barbara has a Korean community.
“We are very excited about this new offering because it will bring another part of the world to SBCC,” said Zúñiga-Lomelí.
Lee thinks working with the Language Partner program and the Education Abroad Program will help her students.
“That would help them a lot to speak with a native speaker,” said Lee.
The thought of increasing the number of languages is very exciting and the School of Modern Language hopes to be able to offer Portuguese and Russian in the future.
“However, right now we need to cultivate Korean before we add any new languages to our curriculum,” said Zúñiga-Lomelí.
For more information students can go to the School of Modern Language and ask Zúñiga-Lomelí.
